The Yellow Wallpaper And The Scarlet Letter - 1993 Words

The setting is the main antagonist in both â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and The Scarlet Letter, but Reverend Dimmesdale and The Narrator hold their problems in their innermost depths, while Hester Prynne faces her issues head on, which leads her through positive character development within her story. By dealing with her problems rather than hiding from them, Hester ends her story in a better place than she started, which is more than we can say for her lover and the madwoman. Demonstrated through hallucinations and inner turmoil, the reader gets the opportunity to watch the two protagonists get driven mad by their inability to confront their fears. In â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† Charlotte Perkins Gilman lets the reader see a woman go mad†¦show more content†¦She describes a woman shaking the bars to get out and eventually thinks she was once stuck inside the paper herself. Watching the paper for months on end leads her to insanity to the point that she is ne arly feral. By being the only available source of interest, the paper undergoes development in the eyes of our narrator. So, she would not have gone mad if she had not incessantly watched the paper, which her husband forced her to do under the insistence that it was good for her health. Reverend Dimmesdale’s obsession is also what deteriorates his mental and psychical health. Near the start of The Scarlet Letter, we know that Dimmesdale is suffering from chest pains and is weary. It is reviled throughout the story that his shame is what’s causing his problems. He becomes very nervous when his physician Roger Chillingworth urges him to reveal his sins under the insistence that ailments of the mind can affect the body. He becomes aggravated at this question and storms out. He turns to self-punishment to deal with his guilt and shame. He,†loathed his miserable self,† because of his deceiving the community. He fasts and refuses to marry one of the many virgins who follow him because he feels the need to purge himself of his sin. By theShow MoreRelatedThe Sexist Surroundings that Etrap the Narrator in Various Literary Works Supresss the Respective Protagonists Identitties as Women1671 Words   |  7 PagesI. THESIS: The sexist surroundings that entrap the Narrator in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† Miss Emily Grierson in â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter ultimately suppress the respective protagonists’ identities as women, leading them to suffer in isolation. II. TOPIC SENTENCE I: The protagonists in the â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† and The Scarlet Letter all live in a sexist environment that confines their lives. A. MAJOR I: The history of each respective settingRead More Kate Chopin The Awakening Essay2357 Words   |  10 PagesPontellier marks a departure from the female characters of earlier nineteenth-century American novels, such as the character of Hester Prynne, of Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Cora Munro from James Fenimore Coopers The Last of the Mohicans, and the unnamed protagonist (and narrator) of Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper. How does society, and its effect on women change throughout nineteenth-century American literature? Society of the nineteenth-century gave a heightened meaningRead MoreGothic Literature : Gothic Writing1974 Words   |  8 Pageswith stories and poetry that still resonates with high schoolers to this day. Works that are still read or at the very least spoken of in high school are stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Noteworthy works by Hawthorne are The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. While Melville wrote a perilous tale of a seaward bound journey that ended with only one whaler’s crew making it and the ship falls victim to the deep unforgiving depths of the ocean floor. As the Industrial RevolutionRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesprovide essential clues that aid in characterization. Some characters are given names that suggest their dominant or controlling traits, as, for example, Edward Murdstone (in Dickens’ David Copperfield) and Roger Chillingsworth (in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter ). Both men are cold-hearted villains their names suggest. Other characters are given names that reinforce (or sometimes are in contrast to) their physical appearance, much in the way that Ichabod Crane, the gangling schoolmaster in Irving’s The